A study of the concurrent relationships between naming speed, phonological awareness and spelling ability in 146 children in Years 3 and 4 of state-funded schools in South-East England (equivalent to US Grades 2 and 3) is reported. Seventy-two children identified as having normal phonological awareness but reduced rapid automatised naming (RAN) performance (1 standard deviation below the mean) participated in the study. A group of 74 children was further identified. These children were matched on phonological awareness, verbal and nonverbal IQ and visual acuity, but all members of this group showed normal RAN performance. RAN made a significant unique contribution to spelling performance. Further analyses showed that participants with low naming performance were significantly poorer spellers overall and had a specific difficulty in spelling irregular words. The findings support the view that RAN may be indexing processes that are implicated in the establishment of fully specified orthographic representations.

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) often co-occurs with reading disability. A cross-sectional study in an Italian-speaking, nonclinical sample was conducted in an attempt to document the existence of an early association between reading difficulties (RD) and ADHD behaviours. We recruited a sample of 369 children in their first year at primary school. Of the sample, 8.4% displayed RD; 7.0% had ADHD; 3.5% presented both RD and ADHD behaviours; 50% of the children with ADHD displayed RD; 41.9% of those with RD displayed ADHD behaviours. Low socioeconomic status was associated with a fourfold increased probability of displaying RD (odds ratio = 3.98), but not ADHD behaviours. In this nonclinical sample, we detected an early association between ADHD behaviours and RD. A key role in this association may be played by inattention symptoms, which occurred with significantly increased frequency also in the group presenting only RD.

The self-teaching hypothesis suggests that knowledge about the orthographic structure of words is acquired incidentally during reading through phonological recoding. The current study assessed whether visual processing skills during reading further contribute to orthographic learning. French children were asked to read pseudowords. The whole pseudoword letter string was available at once for half of the targets while the pseudoword's sub-lexical units were discovered in turn for the other half. Then memorisation of the targets’ orthographic form was assessed. Although most pseudowords were accurately decoded, target orthographic forms were recognised more often when the pseudowords entire orthographic sequence was available at once during the learning phase. The whole-word presentation effect was significant and stable from third to fifth grades. This effect was affected neither by target reading accuracy nor by target reading speed during the learning phase. Results suggest that beyond recoding skills, the ability to process the entire orthographic letter string at once during reading contributes to efficient orthographic learning.

Children with specific language impairments (SLI) have difficulties in producing written text. It was hypothesised that the constraints on writing in children with SLI were similar to typically developing younger children with the same level of vocabulary knowledge. Twenty-three children with SLI (aged 10:5) were matched with 23 children for chronological age (CA) and 23 children for vocabulary levels (VC). Children with SLI performed significantly below their CA peers but not their VC peers on all aspects of writing including spelling. Regression analyses indicated that written text measures of spelling errors and oral language measures of vocabulary were significant predictors of writing products for both the children with SLI and their VC peers. This highlights the importance of oral and written language for the quality of children's written text and indicates that the writing of children with SLI was commensurate with their vocabulary and spelling levels. The results point to the role of both phonological and non-phonological processes in written text production in struggling writers.

High levels of apprehension cause students to have writing difficulties. This study attempted to identify the sources of Egyptian university students’ English writing apprehension. The study made use of both quantitative and qualitative data. The scores of 57 students on a writing apprehension scale were compared to their scores on another scale assessing writing self-efficacy and three linguistic tests measuring English grammar and vocabulary. Additionally, 15 apprehensive students and 16 nonapprehensive students were interviewed about their writing experiences and beliefs. Analysis of the quantitative and qualitative data showed that there are six sources of the students’ English writing apprehension: linguistic knowledge level, perceived language competence, writing performance level, perceived writing competence, instructional practices and fear of criticism. These results indicate the integrative nature of L2 writing ability and emphasise the need for dealing with these sources of apprehension. The study recommends that reducing L2 students’ writing apprehension should start by improving their linguistic knowledge and writing ability; this will result in bringing about a positive change in their language and writing competence self-perceived beliefs. In addition, the study presents some other recommendations for improving instructional practices of English writing in the Egyptian context.

This study examined how children's literacy interests related to parent literacy-promoting practices across time. Using a sample of 909 preschool-age children and the newly developed Child Activities Preference Checklist, literacy interest appeared to be a complex construct, not easily captured by a single measure. In a subsample of 230 children with longitudinal data, parent literacy practices and child literacy interests related concurrently and across time. Parent literacy practices were more stable than child literacy interests, with children's literacy interest continuing to develop over the preschool year. Parent practices of exposing children to literacy and teaching them literacy concepts appeared to be distinct constructs. Exposure to literacy was especially important in the growth of literacy interests and the hypothesis that exposure has a negative effect on children with little initial interest was not fully supported.

It is well established that rapid automatised naming (RAN) correlates with reading ability. Despite several attempts, no single component process (mediator) has been identified that fully accounts for the correlation. The present paper estimated the explanatory value of several mediators for the RAN–reading correlation. One hundred and sixty-nine preschool students were given measures of RAN and additional measures of phonological awareness, lexical search speed, letter knowledge and paired associate learning. Their reading skills were tested a year later along with speed of processing. The influence of the mediators on the RAN–reading correlation was estimated as indirect effects in mediation analyses. Phonological awareness and letter knowledge significantly mediated the RAN–reading relationship, each accounting for a moderate part of the correlation between RAN and reading fluency. Thus, the RAN–reading correlation was partly, but not fully, accounted for by precursors of reading that are currently known.

The extent to which children's reading choices could be predicted by their motivation and gender identity was examined. Two hundred and twenty-three children (average age 9 years 11 months) completed questionnaires measuring book reading choices, reading motivation, gender identity (identification with masculine and feminine traits) and a standardised reading assessment. Sex differences were found in children's reading motivation and reading choices. In addition, feminine traits were more closely associated with reading motivation and engagement with neutral books compared to masculine traits. Whilst children's sex predicted their choice of reading male- or female-orientated books, the extent to which they identified with feminine traits was a better predictor in choice of neutral books. Results are discussed in relation to previous research examining sex differences in children's reading choices. In addition, implications for reading activities and choice of books available at school are discussed.

The present study investigates the role of attitudinal variables, such as children's literacy interest and parents’ reading beliefs, in conjunction with home literacy activities (HLA), in predicting children's print-concept knowledge. The objective of the study is to test a theoretical model describing the relationship among these variables. This study involved 551 low-income preschool children. Structural equation modelling was used to test the model. The model was a good fit for the data when parental teaching of reading/writing was used as the measure of HLA. In the model, negative parent reading beliefs and parent teaching predicted print-concept knowledge. Results suggest that practitioners should consider not only the literacy activities children and parents participate in, but also their attitudes towards those activities.

This investigation examined orthographic and semantic processing during reading acquisition. Children in first to fourth grade were presented with a target word and two response alternatives, and were asked to identify the semantic match. Words were presented in four conditions: an exact match and unrelated foil (STONE–STONE–EARS), an exact match and an orthographic neighbour foil (STONE–STONE–STOVE), a ­synonym match and an unrelated foil (STONE–ROCK–EARS) and a synonym match and an orthographic neighbour foil (STONE–ROCK–STOVE). Accuracy and reaction time results suggest that orthographic and semantic processing follow a two-step ­acquisition pattern. First, the orthographic component of reading develops quickly; however, forming strong conceptual links from orthographic to semantic representations follows a protracted trajectory, which matures between the third and fourth grades. These results are consistent with research that suggests younger children rely on more concrete, perceptual systems and then transition to more flexible, abstract cognition.

We examined how Planning, Attention, Simultaneous and Successive (PASS) processes predict reading comprehension in a sample of university students (Study 1) and what PASS processes distinguish adults with and without reading difficulties (Study 2). In Study 1, 128 university students were tested on Das-Naglieri Cognitive Assessment System, reading fluency and reading comprehension. The results of path analysis indicated that successive processing predicted reading comprehension only through the effects of text- and word-reading fluency, whereas simultaneous processing predicted reading comprehension both directly and through the effects of text-reading fluency. In Study 2, university students with (n = 20) and without (n = 23) reading difficulties were assessed on the same measures as in Study 1. The results of group comparisons indicated that the university students with reading difficulties were experiencing cognitive weaknesses primarily in successive processing. The implications of these findings for PASS theory and comprehension are discussed.

The goal of the study was to examine the association between visual-attentional span and lexical decision in skilled adult readers. In the span tasks, an array of letters was presented briefly and recognition or production of a single cued letter (partial span) or production of all letters (whole span) was required. Independently of letter recognition and phoneme awareness, width of partial recognition span predicted substantial variance only in detection of letter misorderings in words, while partial span efficiency made small contributions to decisions on regular words and pseudowords, but not strange words. With a production format and the inclusion of short-term phonological memory, neither partial-span nor whole-span measures contributed positive independent variance to word and nonword decisions. The results provide meagre support for the idea that skilled adult readers with a wide visual-attentional span might process words more effectively than those with a narrow span during lexical decision.

Developing reading behaviours in early childhood is essential for later reading comprehension. This study explored how peer buddy reading could potentially support emergent readers’ engagement with reading behaviours. Across 40 buddy-reading events, 14 preschoolers (ages 4.0–5.5 years) produced 1,359 conversation turns, which were coded for a variety of reading behaviours including comprehension, thematic vocabulary use and concepts about print. Using statistical discourse analysis, we examined how children's engagement with reading behaviours was related to their buddies’ engagement with reading behaviours in subsequent conversation turns during buddy-reading events. Findings suggest that some of preschoolers’ reading behaviours, such as literal text representation, inferential text interpretation, character development and comprehension monitoring were related to their buddies’ engagement with reading behaviours; others, such as vocabulary and concepts about print, were not. Implications include that buddy reading can be used to support preschoolers’ engagement with some reading behaviours, such as certain aspects of comprehension.

In this study we investigate the role of linguistic knowledge, fluency and meta-cognitive knowledge in Dutch reading comprehension of monolingual and bilingual adolescent academic low achievers in the Netherlands. Results show that these components are substantially associated with reading comprehension. However, their role appears to be different for the monolingual and bilingual low achievers. There are interactions between knowledge and fluency components with membership of the monolingual or bilingual group of low achievers, indicating that knowledge is more important in explaining reading comprehension of bilinguals, whereas fluency is more important in explaining the monolinguals’ reading comprehension. Explanations of this difference between monolingual and bilingual low achievers are discussed.

The present study investigates differences in the word-reading process between individuals reading in a deep (unpointed Hebrew) and a shallow orthography (Turkish). The participants were 120 students evenly and randomly recruited from three levels of education (primary = 3rd–4th graders; middle = 6th–7th graders; high = 9th–10th graders). The students were tested with a computerised paradigm that assessed their efficiency in determining the identicalness of real word (RW) pairs and nonsense word (NW) pairs under perceptual and conceptual conditions. Based on a strong orthographic depth hypothesis, Turkish readers were hypothesised to manifest superior word-processing skills in comparison to Hebrew readers, both for RWs and NWs. Evidence obtained from the analysis of the quantitative and qualitative performance of the participants failed to support this prediction. Findings are discussed with reference to a single-route grain-size-based word-reading model and a modified dual-route word-reading model.

The study examined the role of oral language skills in reading comprehension and listening comprehension levels of 125 monolingual (L1) and bilingual (L2) English-speaking learners (M = 121.5 months, SD = 4.65) in England. All testing was conducted in English. The L1 learners outperformed their L2 peers on the measures of oral language and text comprehension, but the two groups performed at comparable levels on word-reading accuracy and speed. Oral language, indexed by vocabulary and morphosyntactic skills, emerged as the most powerful unique predictor of both reading and listening comprehension levels. Although there was a tendency of oral language to be more strongly related to L2 reading comprehension, its relationship with listening comprehension was comparable across the two language groups. Finally, individual differences in oral language skills emerged as the primary factor that explained the language group differences in text comprehension levels. Educational implications of these findings were discussed.

This study examined expressive vocabulary and its relationship to reading skills for 232 native English-speaking adults who read between the third- and fifth-grade levels. The Boston Naming Test (BNT) was used to measure expressive vocabulary. Participants scored lower than the normative sample of adults on all aspects of the test; they had fewer spontaneously correct answers, and were not helped by stimulus or phonemic cues. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that expressive vocabulary accounted for significant variance in both reading comprehension and exception word reading, but not for general word reading or nonword reading.

This study investigated note-taking during multiple-text reading across two different task conditions in relation to comprehension performance and self-reports of strategy use. Forty-four undergraduates read multiple texts about climate change to write an argument or a summary. Analysis of students’ spontaneous note-taking during reading showed that intertextual elaboration strategies, as indicated by the notes, were related to deeper-level, integrated comprehension for students reading to construct an argument, whereas no such relationship was observed for students reading to summarise information. Relations between note-taking and self-reporting of strategies suggested a heightened awareness of strategy use among students reading to construct an argument, with this, possibly, explaining why their note-taking strategies accounted for variance in their comprehension performance. Discussion focuses on the unique contributions of the current work to multiple-text strategy research.

There is growing evidence that children develop orthographic knowledge from the very beginning of literacy acquisition. This study investigated the development of German-speaking children's orthographic knowledge with a nonword choice task. One nonword in each pair contained a frequent consonant doublet (zommul) and the other nonword contained an infrequent doublet (zobbul). Children (N = 54) performed at chance level in kindergarten but chose nonwords with frequent doublets significantly more often than expected by chance in first and second grade. Correlations between children's orthographic knowledge and their reading and spelling skills were not found. The results indicate that knowledge of frequent double consonants is evident in German-speaking children from first grade onwards, but it is not related to their reading and spelling performance. This finding is consistent with the view that children in transparent orthographies rely less on frequent letter patterns during reading and spelling compared to children in deep orthographies.

Student writing achievement is essential to lifelong learner success, but supporting writing can be challenging for teachers. Several large-scale analyses of publications on writing have called for further study of instructional methods, as the current literature does not sufficiently address the need to support best teaching practices. Self-assessment methods in writing instruction present meaningful ways to promote student writing achievement through reflection and meta-cognition during the writing process. Self-assessment practices are described in publications across the academic disciplines where writing is required, and close investigations of the methods are also published in the research fields of literacy, English education and composition. This study aims to bridge these fields to construct a clear and comprehensive understanding of self-assessment methods. Self-assessment encompasses a wide range of practices and varied terminology. It is essential to clarify effective methods of self-assessment and to disseminate practical information to educators. This paper presents the findings of an analysis of the literature yielding: (1) a theoretical framework for self-assessment methods in writing instruction; (2) an overview of concepts/practices; (3) a list of literature-supported strategies for effective classroom use derived from a study of a vast body of literature. Results strongly support self-assessment as a means to foster student writing achievement, middle school through higher education. Delineated strategies can assist instructors with self-assessment implementation.

This study investigates the effects of background knowledge on Chinese word processing during silent reading by monitoring adult readers’ eye movements. Both higher knowledge (physics major) and lower knowledge (nonphysics major) graduate students were given physics texts to read. Higher knowledge readers spent less time rereading and had lower regression rates on unfamiliar physics words and common words in physics texts than did lower knowledge readers; they also had shorter gaze durations and fewer first-pass fixations on familiar physics words than on unfamiliar physics words. For unfamiliar physics words and common words, both groups predominantly fixated first on the beginnings of words when they made multiple fixations on a word and on a left-of-centre location when they fixated only once on a word. These findings suggest that both groups comprise mature readers with strong language concepts. However, differences in background knowledge led to different reading processes at different stages of reading.

In this study, we examined texting behaviours, text message characteristics (textese) of actual sent text messages and the relationships between texting, textese and literacy abilities in a sample of 183 American undergraduates. As compared to previous naturalistic and experimental studies with English-speaking adults, both texting frequency and textism density (proportion of textese) were greater, but category density analyses were similar to a recent experimental study with undergraduates. Interestingly, whilst overall textism density was negatively related to reading and spelling, some textism categories (e.g., omitted apostrophes) were negatively related to literacy skills, while others (e.g., accent stylisation) were positively related to literacy skills. The use of predictive texting was a moderator in this relationship. Our results may help explain the discordant findings between children and adults with regard to textese use and literacy skills, and also highlight the importance of conducting analyses of category density and predictive texting in studies of texting and literacy.

This paper reports on a study of the purposes for literacy discernible in young children's use of the virtual world, Club Penguin. Twenty-six children aged between 5 and 11 took part in semi-structured interviews in which their use of virtual worlds was explored. Further, three 11-year-old children were filmed using Club Penguin four times each over the period of 1 month in their own homes and they and their parents took part in interviews regarding their use of this virtual world. Findings indicate that the purposes for literacy in virtual worlds such as these are varied and have much in common with purposes for literacy in the off ine world. The virtual world Club Penguin provided a motivating and enjoyable context for reading and writing and enabled the construction and maintenance of online social networks. The implications for research, policy and practice are discussed.

The purpose of this study was to determine if there are gender differences among elementary school-aged students in regard to the inferences they generate during reading. Fourth-grade students (130 females; 126 males) completed think-aloud tasks while reading one practice and one experimental narrative text. Females generated a larger number and a greater proportion of reinstatement inferences than did males (Cohen's d = .34, p = .01; Cohen's d = .26, p = .04, respectively). In contrast, there was no evidence for gender differences in other types of think-aloud responses. These findings suggest that males and females differ in their use of cognitive processes that underlie reading comprehension, particularly with respect to the likelihood of retrieval of information from episodic memory.

The present study investigates the validity of a 4-point rating scale used to measure the level of preschool children's orientation to literacy during shared book reading. Validity was explored by (a) comparing the children's level of literacy orientation as measured with the Children's Orientation to Book Reading Rating Scale (COB) with a teacher's rating of a child's level of attention and effortful control on the Children's Behaviour Questionnaire (CBQ), and (b) computing the predictive validity of a child's COB rating with overall levels of emergent literacy at the end of the preschool school year. This study involved 46 preschool children from low-income backgrounds; children's literacy orientation was rated during a group teacher-led book reading. Children's ratings of literacy orientation during shared book reading using the global 4-point COB scale were significantly correlated with teacher ratings of a child's attention and effortful control as measured on the CBQ. Hierarchical regression results indicated children's literacy orientation significantly predicted children's end-of-year alphabet knowledge and overall emergent reading skills above and beyond the variance contributed by children's language skills and family income. The validity of a global rating for indexing children's level of literacy orientation was supported. Educational implications and recommendations for the COB as a component of early literacy assessment are discussed.

Recent literacy research shows an increasing interest in the influence of prosody on literacy acquisition. The current study examines the relationship of nonspeech rhythmic skills to children's reading acquisition, and their possible relation to stress assignment in Spanish, a syllable-timed language. Sixty-six third graders with no reading difficulties were scored on measures of nonspeech rhythm, word-level decoding skill, reading fluency and reading with correct assignment of lexical stress. After controlling for verbal intelligence and working memory, hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed that nonspeech rhythm predicted unique variance in reading fluency and correct stress assignment; it did not predict decoding skills. Given that Spanish is a syllable-timed as opposed to stress-timed language like English, the association between nonspeech rhythm, reading fluency and stress assignment found in our study suggests that nonspeech rhythm may be a universal factor in reading acquisition, independent of the type of linguistic rhythm.

Letter position dyslexia (LPD) is a peripheral dyslexia that causes errors of letter position within words, such as reading cloud as could. In this study, we assessed the effect of various display manipulations and reading methods on the reading of 10 Hebrew readers with developmental LPD. These manipulations included tracking the letters with the index finger, spacing of two or six spaces between letters, presenting each letter in a different colour and inserting a sign between letters. We also tested the effect of diacritic markers, which provide disambiguating phonological information. Several display manipulations reduced the rate of letter migrations, and finger tracking was the most efficient technique. Diacritic markers were either ignored or made reading even more difficult. These findings indicate that LPD is treatable, and that the technique that is the easiest to apply, finger tracking, is also the most promising one in reducing letter migrations in LPD.

The present study explores the development and promotion of reading comprehension in primary school students, in the context of the implementation of an educational programme called ‘Learning Together’ (LT). The programme, which centred on collaborative learning activities, was designed to promote oral and written communication in primary school Mexican children. Analyses revealed that children who participated in the LT programme, in comparison with students in a control condition, produced higher-quality written summaries of texts they had read, both when working in teams and when working individually. This suggests that the LT participants appropriated and transferred the text comprehension strategies promoted, so that they could apply these strategies effectively not only in collaborative contexts but also independently, that is, in a self-regulated and autonomous fashion. The theoretical and practical implications of the work are discussed in relation to understanding and promoting oracy and literacy processes in primary school students.

The purpose of this exploratory study was to investigate the cognitive processes used by individuals who read a refutational text about physics and demonstrated conceptual change learning. Four high school readers whose initial conceptions differed from the scientific conception of Newton's first law thought aloud while reading a refutational text. After reading, they completed a post-test and participated in an in-depth interview in which they were asked to provide interpretations of their think-aloud comments. Qualitative analysis revealed that readers used a variety of cognitive processes during reading and their incorrect conceptions were revised to be more in line with the scientific conception explained in the text. The findings were consistent with the co-activation hypothesis, which predicts that refutational texts can induce cognitive conflict and facilitate conceptual change learning.

We analysed word reading and spelling in French adults with low levels of literacy (A-IL). As well as examining phonological and lexical processes, we explored the relationship between literacy and oral language skills. Fifty-two adult literacy students were compared with reading level-matched pupils in Years 1–3 of primary school on reading tasks (pseudoword reading, word reading, text comprehension), spelling tasks (pseudoword spelling, text dictation) and oral language tasks. A-IL scored the same as children on word reading and spelling but less well on pseudoword reading and spelling. They also produced fewer phonologically acceptable errors in the dictation. Regarding oral language skills, as a group A-IL encountered greater difficulty in phonology than in morphosyntax and semantics, and correlations revealed strong relationships between literacy levels and oral skills, particularly in the domain of phonology. Within their group, however, A-IL displayed several distinct language profiles. These could reflect different risk factors leading to functional illiteracy and are discussed regarding the cognitive and environmental causes of impaired reading acquisition.

Studies have begun to focus on what skills contribute to the development of phonological awareness, an important predictor of reading attainment. One of these skills is the perception of prosody, which is the rhythm, tempo and stress of a language. To examine whether prosodic perception contributes to phonological awareness prior to reading tuition, we assessed 49 prereaders. Using confirmatory factor analysis, we found that measures of prosodic perception and phonological awareness loaded onto separate factors. Our regression analyses revealed that prosodic perception accounted for significant variance after partialling out definitional vocabulary and memory for digits, but not after accounting for receptive vocabulary. Based on the independence of prosodic perception from definitional vocabulary, we concluded that prosodic perception contributes to the development of phonological awareness indirectly through receptive vocabulary, by improving speech-processing skills, but independently of semantic knowledge. Further studies should examine the role of prosody in children at risk of later reading difficulties.

Italian developmental dyslexic readers show a striking length effect and have been hypothesised to rely mostly on nonlexical reading. Our experiments tested this hypothesis by assessing whether or not the deficit underlying dyslexia is specific to lexical reading. The effects of lexicality, word frequency and length were investigated in the same group of children in four separate experiments. Although dyslexics were slower and less accurate than skilled readers and had large length effects, they showed lexicality and word frequency effects in both reading aloud and lexical decision. In a cross-experiment comparison, we show that a single global factor explains a large proportion of the difference in reading performance between dyslexic and skilled readers. This factor may indicate a deficit at a prelexical level of analysis. Lexical activation seemed spared in the dyslexic children based on the effects of lexicality and frequency. These findings contrast the hypothesis that Italian dyslexics primarily engage in nonlexical reading.

Storybook features, such as linguistic richness and print salience, potentially influence how a teacher references print. This study addressed two research questions: (1) to what extent does the linguistic richness and print salience of children's storybooks relate to teachers’ use of print referencing? and (2) to what extent is there an interplay between storybooks’ linguistic richness and print salience when predicting teachers’ use of print referencing? Fifty-seven teachers participated in a whole-group read-aloud intervention while including print-referencing behaviours. Researchers analysed teacher videos in order to (1) document teachers’ use of print referencing and (2) document the storybook's linguistic features and print salience. Results indicated that print salience is highly positively related to teachers’ use of print referencing. Also, the constructs of Print Salience Metric (PSM) and total words predicted teachers’ use of print referencing, and the interaction between PSM and mean length of sentence was significant for storybooks with moderate and high PSM scores.

Connectives (e.g., although, meanwhile) carry abstract meanings and often signal key relationships between text ideas. This study explored whether understanding of connectives represents a unique domain of vocabulary knowledge that provides special leverage for reading comprehension, and whether the contribution of knowledge of connectives to reading comprehension differs for students from distinct language backgrounds. Understanding of connectives, word reading efficiency and breadth of vocabulary knowledge of 75 English language learners (ELLs) and 75 English-only (EO) fifth graders were assessed. Hierarchical multiple regression techniques revealed that understanding of connectives explained a sizeable and significant portion of unique variance in comprehension beyond that explained by breadth of vocabulary knowledge when controlling for word reading efficiency. The magnitude of this relationship was larger for EO students than for ELLs. Findings indicate that connectives play an important role in comprehension, but that the strength of their influence varies by readers’ linguistic background.

The aim of this study was to determine if phonological processing deficits in specific reading disability (SRD) and specific language impairment (SLI) are the same or different. In four separate analyses, a different combination of reading and spoken language measures was used to divide 73 children into three subgroups: poor readers with average spoken language (SRD), poor readers with poor spoken language (SRD + SLI) and average readers with poor spoken language (SLI). These groups were compared on five phonological processing measures. The SRD group had deficits in neural representations of phonemes, phoneme discrimination, phoneme awareness and rapid naming. The SRD + SLI group had more severe deficits than the SRD group on half of these measures, as well as phonological short-term memory. Children with SLI were free from phonological processing deficits. Thus, phonological processing deficits were the same or different in SRD and SLI, depending on how SRD and SLI were defined, and how phonological processing was measured.

Three experiments are reported that investigate the cognitive processes underlying contextual and isolated word reading. In Phase 1, undergraduate participants were exposed to 75 target words under three conditions. The participants generated 25 words from definitions, read 25 words in context and read 25 in isolation. In Phase 2, volunteers completed either an explicit recall task (Experiment 1), an implicit word stem completion task (Experiment 2) or both tasks (Experiment 3). Our findings provide converging evidence that contextual and isolated word reading elicit different patterns of cognitive processing. Specifically, Experiments 1–3 demonstrated that words read in context were remembered similarly to words generated from definitions: words from both conditions were recalled more frequently in the surprise memory task and selected less often to complete the word stems in the implicit memory task. The opposite pattern was noted for words read in isolation. Reading in context is discussed in terms of its greater reliance on semantic processing, whereas isolated word reading is discussed in relation to perceptually driven processes.

This study was designed to examine the independent contributions of phonological awareness, orthographic processing and morphological awareness on early word reading. English-speaking children in Grades 1 and 3 completed measures of these three constructs, as well as standardised measures of real and pseudoword reading and of vocabulary. Each of the three reading-related variables made an independent contribution to both real and pseudoword reading. Independent contributions of phonological awareness (7–17%) were consistently larger than those of orthographic processing (5–10%) or of morphological awareness (1–2%). In terms of differences between the grades, there was particular evidence of an increase in greater contribution of orthographic processing to pseudoword reading at Grade 3 than at Grade 1. These findings are discussed in light of current models of reading development.

Two experiments were conducted to test the hypothesis that sentence processing is an essential mediatory skill between word recognition and text comprehension in reading. In Experiment 1, a semantic similarity judgement task was used with children from Grade 2 to Grade 9. They had to say whether two written sentences had the same (or very similar) meanings or whether the meanings of the two sentences were very different. As expected, performance improved with age both on the high-frequency words and with increasingly complex sentences. In Experiment 2 with children in Grade 3, scores in written sentence comprehension and vocabulary made the most important unique contribution to the reading comprehension of an expository text. The results are discussed first, in the light of a general framework in which sentence-level skill is at the core of reading comprehension and second, with reference to the issue of reading assessment.

Children learning English as an additional language (EAL) often experience difficulties with reading comprehension relative to their monolingual peers. While low levels of vocabulary appear to be one factor underlying these difficulties, other factors such as a relative lack of appropriate background knowledge may also contribute. Sixteen children learning EAL and 16 of their monolingual peers, matched for word reading accuracy, were assessed using a standard measure of reading comprehension and an experimental measure of reading comprehension for which relevant background knowledge was taught before assessing understanding. Tests of receptive and expressive vocabulary were also completed. Results confirmed lower levels of reading comprehension for children learning EAL for both standard and ‘background’ controlled measures. Analysis of comprehension by question type on the experimental measure showed that while both groups made use of taught knowledge to answer inferential questions, children learning EAL had specific difficulties with both literal questions and questions requiring the interpretation of a simile. It is suggested that relevant background information should be used to facilitate children's text comprehension. Furthermore, several factors, especially vocabulary differences, but also text search strategies, context use and comprehension monitoring skills, may contribute to the comprehension difficulties experienced by children learning EAL.

This article focuses on a multicultural, low socioeconomic, intermediate school that over the 4 years of this longitudinal, qualitative, case study made substantial positive shifts in developing a more effective learning environment and improving students' reading achievement. The study found that the factors appearing to have the most influence on this improvement were: effective and collaborative school leadership; ongoing school-wide professional development on teaching reading led by an externally appointed literacy expert; the appointment, within the school, of a literacy leader charged with supporting this development; assessment data being used to inform teaching and a school-wide action plan directed at literacy improvement; the implementation of reading programmes that were regular, focused and sustained; the school leadership proactively ensuring school-wide support for management of appropriate student behaviour; the fostering of home–school partnerships; and ongoing external reviews of school effectiveness.

This study tested the theory that future poor comprehenders would show modest but pervasive deficits in both language comprehension and production during early childhood as compared with future poor decoders and typical readers. Using an existing database (NICHD ECCRN), fifth-grade students were identified as having poor comprehension skills (n=16), poor decoding skills (n=11) or typical reading skills (n=35) based on standardised assessments of word recognition and reading comprehension. Language comprehension and production during the toddler and preschool years were retrospectively compared across these subgroups. Compared with future typical readers and poor decoders, poor comprehenders had the lowest abilities on language assessments at 15, 24, 36 and 54 months. For nearly all contrasts, the difference between poor comprehenders and the other groups of readers exceeded .5 standard deviation in magnitude, indicating that the early language skills of poor comprehenders exhibit appreciable lags.

Many low-skill readers have problems with visual word recognition. In particular, low-skill readers show a substantial nonword reading deficit that is attributed to deficits in sub-lexical processing. In this study, I examined whether the nonword deficits of German 14-year-old low-skill readers were associated with inefficient use of multi-letter information. In a lexical-decision experiment, words and nonwords were presented in standard format and in MiXeD cAsE format which has been shown to be especially disrupting for sub-lexical processing. When the stimuli were presented in standard format, low-skill readers showed a substantial nonword reading deficit, that is they were generally slower than high-skill readers, but had special problems with decoding nonwords. However, when stimuli were presented in MiXeD cAsE, low- and high-skill readers showed equal impairments in nonword processing. This finding indicates that low-skill readers do not use context-sensitive multi-letter rules during phonological assembly in normal reading.

This study focused on the associations of general auditory processing, speech perception, phonological awareness and word reading in Cantonese-speaking children from Hong Kong learning to read both Chinese (first language [L1]) and English (second language [L2]). Children in Grades 2–4 (N=133) participated and were administered measures of IQ, word reading, phonological awareness, speech perception and auditory processing in both L1 and L2. Auditory processing uniquely explained both L1 and L2 word reading. While L1 speech perception accounted for unique variance in L1 word reading, L2 phonological awareness explained unique variance in L2 word reading. In cross-language comparisons, L1 phonological awareness and speech perception were uniquely associated with L2 word reading, suggesting cross-language transfer from L1 to L2 only. Results underscore the importance of auditory processing for reading across variable learning contexts.

There are many established reading strategy training programmes, which explicitly teach strategic and meta-cognitive knowledge to improve reading comprehension. Although instruction in strategy knowledge leads to improvements in meta-cognitive skills, the effects do not always transfer to reading comprehension. Therefore, to investigate preconditions for knowledge transfer, two different strategy training programmes were implemented in nine classes of Grade 6 students (N = 148) over the course of one school year. One programme involved teacher-directed instruction of declarative meta-cognitive knowledge (Reading Detectives; Rühl & Souvignier, 2006). The other aimed at improving executive meta-cognition by guided practice: students worked with a computer program based on latent semantic analysis (LSA) (conText) and received immediate feedback on written summaries. Although both groups improved their strategy knowledge to the same extent, the conText group showed a greater improvement in reading comprehension. These fndings suggest that guided practice, which is characterised by intensive practice and individualised corrective feedback, is superior to explicitly teaching strategy knowledge.